Liberal billionaire Michael Bloomberg bemoaned the lack of a private armed security force at Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater, due to the murder rate in Baltimore.
The former mayor of New York City, who’s likely to run for president in 2020, has long been an advocate for gun control, but his comments on Tuesday raised eyebrows and accusations that his support of an armed private force on campus were at odds with his views on gun control.
“When you have a city that has the murder rate that Baltimore has, I think it’s ridiculous to think that they shouldn’t be armed,” Bloomberg told reporters after a meeting at Maryland’s Statehouse in Annapolis with Democratic lawmakers and state Attorney General Brian Frosh, according to the Baltimore Sun.
He went on to say that a lack of such armed security is “irrational” for a university that is one of Baltimore’s biggest employers.
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3 Responses
It is not hypocritical. Unfortunately, these days every position is so radicalized be it right or left, that there is no possibility of examining particular circumstances and distinguishing between that circumstance and others. How else do you explain how virtually every vote in Congress is decided on straight party lines. It’s simply knee jerk, on both sides of the aisle.
A better way would be to look at each piece of proposed legislation and actually look at the pros and cons. Bloomberg in this instance, is typically for gun control, however where extreme circumstances warrant it , he is for better security. That is not hypocritical, it’s common sense.
Michael Bloomberg can prove to all that he is nit a hypocrite by re-assigning his private ARMED bodyguards to patrol John Hopkins University. He can kill (pun intended) two birds with one stone: make his beloved U safe and at the same time reduce private firearms ownership.
It is very hypocritical. The circumstances at Johns Hopkins are far less extreme than those elsewhere in Baltimore and in poorer areas of many cities, and yet he wants to disarm people there and prevent them from protecting themselves. Just as he hires armed bodyguards for himself but insists that those who can’t afford to hire others to protect them, or simply prefer to protect themselves, be deprived of the right to do so.